Dinner for a sore throat

Instead of one dish tonight we have been snacking our way through the evening. I wanted to make a variety of smooth dishes to make it easier for Dan to eat with his sore throat. He relented so either lunch really hurt or I wore him down. I am not certain it matters which one it was. Here is what we have had so far tonight:

Cold Melon and Cucumber Soup
Serves 2

Ingredients:

¼ cup raw cashews
½ melon, peeled and cut into cubes (I used an orange Tuscan melon)
½ English cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
¼ teaspoon orange extract
2 – 6 mint leaves, depending on how much mint flavor you want

Directions:

Place the raw cashews into your blender first then add remaining ingredients on top. Process the soup until smooth. Adjust the mint to your tastes. Serve well chilled.  Garnish with a mint sprig if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 123.52
Calories From Fat (38%) - 46.88

Total Fat - 5.6g
Saturated Fat - 1.01g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 25.15mg
Potassium - 553.98mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.61g
Fiber - 2.19g
Sugar - 12.69g
Protein - 3.79g

Comments:

This is a good soup if it is hot and you don’t want to turn on the stove. It is also good if someone at your house has a sore throat. If you are a big fan of citrus this would be good with a little fresh orange juice. I will definitely make this again when the weather is warm like it was today.

Next recipe

I have played around with raw hummus and I can safely say that I am not a fan of eating too many sprouted raw chickpeas. I don’t know what it is but they are very hard for both husband and me to digest. A few sprouted chickpeas on a salad are fine but too many means trouble for us. I have been looking for a raw hummus for some time and none of them really appeal to me. However there was one recipe I came across that used summer squash as a substitute for garbanzo beans. Zucchini alone was the wrong texture for hummus. But when I added cooked chickpeas I had the best of both worlds. This is what I made tonight:

Reduced Calorie Hummus with Zucchini
Makes 2 ½ cups – or 6 servings of ½ cup each

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chickpeas, no salt
1 medium zucchini, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons sesame seeds or tahini
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon cumin, or to taste
1 teaspoon paprika, or to taste
1 lemon, zest only
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine everything in your high speed blender and puree until it is completely smooth. Adjust salt and pepper to your taste.  If you don't have a high speed blender a food processor should also work but then you will want to use tahini and stop the machine a few times to scrape the sides of the mixer bowl.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 115.61
Calories From Fat (22%) - 25.88

Total Fat - 3.09g
Saturated Fat - 0.38g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 8.28mg
Potassium - 276.77mg
Total Carbohydrates - 17.46g
Fiber - 5.15g
Sugar - 3.29g
Protein - 5.93g

Comments:

I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth this hummus was. Of course I also like the nutrition the raw zucchini adds to the spread. This is not too different from the other variations of hummus that I have made with baked sweet potato, or roasted red pepper. But this variation has the added benefit of the inclusion of raw veggies. This worked out so well I will be playing around with other raw veggies in hummus to see if one works out better than any of the others. However, for now this is a great place to start.

Tonight I had my hummus with crunchy veggies as pictured above. Dan has his hummus with softer veg. I was happy to find a way to make it work for both of us. :-)

Unrelated note:

Today has been an unsettled day at our house for obvious reasons. Dan’s throat is still raw and sore. But he is managing to eat and that is a good sign. We have discovered that drinking liquids with the food seems to help a lot. Also when the temperature of the food is more moderate they seem to go down easier. Hopefully tomorrow will show some improvement in his throat.

The weather today has been unseasonably warm reaching into the 90’s this afternoon. Dan, I and the three felines were all a little lethargic today. None of us has adjusted to the heat apparently. If Dan had felt better today it would have been a wonderful day for a long bike ride. Hopefully next weekend will also be nice.

Tomorrow the farmers’ market downtown opens. While we normally go each Sunday I think it would be better for Dan to get his rest. Either I will go without him or we will be skipping this weekend. We have a ton of fresh produce in the two refrigerators so it really isn’t a necessity to be at the market tomorrow.

I need to make something else for us to eat tonight to make certain Dan has had enough calories. We also need to have our fresh juice tonight and green drink. It seems like all we have done today is eat.

I hope you all had a good day. Talk to you tomorrow.